OPEN WINDOW
An open window was once symbolic of freedom, escape and new greener pastures. The term open window has now been applied to on screen work activity. For Robin Footitt’s second exhibition at New Art Projects he comments upon the way in which the now familiar language of the screen, tablet or smart phone can sometimes complicate or obsure the real meaning of an image.
The new digital formats of viewing images has become so widespread that their limitations are forgotten. We swipe, we enlarge, we delete, we touch, we copy, we paste… we edit. It has become a new language in our lives, with new gestures and a new form of mark making which impact on Footitt’s process of making art.
Napkin Variations comes from a series of drawings scaled to the dimension of his own phone screen. The playful unfolding of a napkin becomes a time-based ritual for idle hands, arranged in a composition familiar as a window. The open window is manipulated to “square” the drawing and the image is cropped to fit the dimensions of the social media platform Instagram.
This exhibition also extends the themes from his previous exhibition Modern Grammar, 2016. In You Left Me he revisits the plurality of loss with three images of an undeveloped 35mm camera film, three photographs captured but never resolved – only to be developed years later when both moment in time has passed and the photographer has passed away.
Photographs: Piero Parisi 2018
Robin Footitt (b. 1982) studied at Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art, London. Footitt lives and works in Bow, East London and is a former resident of Acme Studios’ Fire Station Residency, Bromley-by-Bow, London (2010 – 2015), The Florence Trust, London (2009) and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2008). Recent exhibitions include Modern Grammar, New Art Projects, London (2016); What Cannot Be Contained, Smiths Row, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (2015) and The Trouble With Painting Today, Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London (2014).
Image: Holding Object, 2018, marker pen, spray paint and lacquer on aluminium panel, 90 x 90 cms
As well as exhibiting his solo show Robin will also be curating The Toast, an exhibition of his contemporaries.
THE TOAST
“The Toast is loosely based on experience – every unappreciated person has been overlooked at some point in their lives, whether it is to be marginalised or simply underplayed at a significant stage of their development. It is my wish to turn these occasional setbacks into a positive appraisal and look towards my peers and their own practices, celebrating what is relevant to art making and, in a generational sense, current today.”- Robin Footitt
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom 
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom (b. 1984) London, lives and works in London, studied at Winchester School of Art and Royal Academy Schools. Recent exhibitions include; V22 Young London, London (2018); Michael Jackson: On The Wall, National Portrait Gallery London (2018); Cuchifritos Gallery & Project Space, New York, USA (2018); Fashion Arts Commission 2017/18, Christies London (2018); Naming Rights, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2017) Untitled: Art on the Conditions of Our Time, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (2017); Critical Contemplation with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, Tate Modern, London (2017). Screening work at Serpentine Gallery, London (2017), as part of Intimate Trespass: Hapticality, Waywardness and the Practice of Entanglement on the occasion of Arthur Jafa’s solo show. Upcoming shows include Untitled, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK (2020), Solo Presentations, Jerwood Space, London (2019). Boakye-Yiadom has been awarded residence at Villa Lena, Tuscany, Italy (2019) and is a recipient of Jerwood Visual Arts Artist Bursary (2017)
Appau Jnr. Boakye-Yiadom,During: interpolation ii, model rail track, digital print on box, flat screen, dimensions variable
Stewart Cliff
Stewart Cliff (b.1982) studied at Goldsmiths College and Royal Academy Schools. The recipient of Jerwood Painting Prize (2010), New Contemporaries (2008) and Richard Ford Award (2005). Recent exhibitions include; V22 Young London, London (2018); The Sleeping Procession, Cass Sculpture Foundation (2017); New Relics, Thames Side Project Space (2018) and Fade Out curated by Francesca Gavin (2014). Forthcoming projects include Benetton Imago Mundi project
Stewart Cliff, Gold, plaster, polystyrene, wood, 38 x 44 x 7cm
Stewart Cliff, Light Cloud, plaster, polystyrene, wood, 21 x 32 x 7cm
David Edwards
David Edwards (b. 1977) studied at Chelsea College of Art and Royal College of Art, London. Edwards works in Bow, East London. Exhibitions include Bow Open, Nunnery Gallery, London (2017); The Harboured Guest, 4 Windmill Street Gallery (2012); Masters in Photography, Royal College of Art, London (2012) and Festival Alt. +1000, Rossinière, Switzerland (2011)
David Edwards, Meteorite #2, archival c-type print, 50 x 40cm
George Little 
George Little (b.1988) studied at University of Brighton and Royal College of Art. An Anglo-Danish national, Little lives and works in Hackney and Stockwell, London. A participant in Arte Contemporanea Prize (2017-18) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2012-2013). Recent exhibitions include Split Bisque, Deweer Gallery, Belgium (2017); Peace, Love and Happiness, Curated by Kris Day, Menier Gallery, London (2017); Modern Talk: Gunther Forg, Deweer Gallery, Belgium (2016); Painting Made and Do It, Dot Project, London (2016); Under The Cloche, Bosse And Baum, London (2015); Tutti Frutti, Turps Banana Gallery, London (2015); New Order II, Saatchi Gallery, London (2014); Classification Bouillabaisse, Ana Cristea Gallery, New York (2013). Little has also widely participated in art fairs in New York, Los Angeles, Brussels, Milan and Dallas. This summer Little has been working on an installation and exhibition for the Drake Hotel, Toronto.
George Little, Precicarapice IV (Turned Over), oil, acrylic, watercolour, ink and wax with paper and glassine on damask linen
Eugene Macki
Eugene Macki (b. 1988) studied at Chelsea College of Arts, London and Sheffield Hallam University, South Yorkshire, England. Macki lives and works in Hackney, East London and was awarded a fellowship to attend Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture: Summer Residency Program, Maine, USA (2018). Previous residencies include Threads Micro, Folkestone (2018), Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London (2018), Atelier Austmarka, Norway (2015) and The Muse Gallery, London (2014). Recipient of the Departure Foundation Studio Bursary, London (2011 – 2013). Recent exhibitions include; Substitution and other Enacted Stories, The Stone Space Gallery, London (2018); Artist Film Festival, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London (2018); Open Biennial, NN Contemporary Art, Northampton (2018); Drawing for Sculpture, 2021 Visual Arts Centre, Lincolnshire (2017); Draw the Line, Surface Gallery, Nottingham (2017).
Eugene Macki, Flamenco Sketches II, wood, screws, burlap ribbons, filler, paint, 180 x 205 x 12cm
Simon Mathers 
Simon Mathers (b. 1984) lives and works in London. He studied at Goldsmiths and Royal College of Art, London. Recent solo shows include Bad Butter, Lyles and King, New York (2018); You Are Underground, Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2017) and Beyond the Trees, Canopy Project Space, Brussels (2016). Mathers was also included in 2016 sommer.frische.kunst residency project in Bad Gastien Austria and has recently come back from painting in Mexico where he made a new body of work on paper as well as organising Mystery Dramas, a roving project space that takes place in rental cars; the first of which was an exhibition by Finnish artist Aki Ilomaki. Current exhibitions include Ahhhhh Real Monsters, Clages, Cologne; a group presentation with Gianni Manhattan at Vienna Contemporary and a solo show at Akbar Project Space in London, all in September 2018.
Simon Mathers, No Hand Luggage, acrylic and oil on canvas, 81 x 102cm
Sarah Poots
Sarah Poots (1982, N. Ireland) studied at the Royal Academy Schools, London and Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow. She lives and works in London and Nottingham and is a previous recipient of the Acme Studio’s Chadwell Residency. Solo exhibitions include One unit and the next, ANDOR, London (2015) and Can be used over and over, CCA, Londonderry (2014). Recent group exhibitions include; The Manchester Contemporary, Syson Gallery (2017); Outpost Open, selected by Chris Rawcliffe and Lynda Morris, Norwich (2016); You can’t blame gravity for falling in love, Lychee One, London (2016); The Plymouth Open, Plymouth University (2015); Autocatalytic Future Games, No Format, London (2015); Stopped Clocks in Places of Busyness, Fold Gallery, London (2013); Artist of the Day, selected by Bridget Smith, Flowers Gallery, London (2013); John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2012). Marching through the Fields, Warbling Collective, London, 2018.
Sarah Poots, Stone Series, (Lucky Pair I), oil on canvas, 25 x 18cm